"Fix it" Life-cycle

[Dick K]

Microsoft sometimes release temporary "Fix it" solutions
to urgent problems in advance of corresponding patches.
Is there any rule governing whether or at what point such
a "Fix it" should be manually disabled? Before installing
the patch? After? Unnecessary?

 

[s|b]

Microsoft sometimes release temporary "Fix it" solutions
to urgent problems in advance of corresponding patches.
Is there any rule governing whether or at what point such
a "Fix it" should be manually disabled? Before installing
the patch? After? Unnecessary?

Before installing the patch (is what I've read). Installing a patch
won't uninstall the Fix-it...

 

[Dick K]

Before installing the patch (is what I've read). Installing a patch
won't uninstall the Fix-it...

Many thanks. I'll just have to scrutinize each important patch
until the right one comes along. FWIW this is the offending
vulnerability:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/security/advisory/2719615

 

[charlie]

Many thanks. I'll just have to scrutinize each important patch
until the right one comes along. FWIW this is the offending
vulnerability:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/security/advisory/2719615

This gets a bit messy.

If the "fix" replaces or changes code that a later update also replaces,
the "fix" sort of goes away in favor of the update.

On the other hand, the fix may disable or change something elsewhere.
In this case, hopefully, the update senses that the "fix" was previously
implemented, and does what is necessary to bring the configuration to a
"normal" condition.

There are a lot of variables for the second example, and, as a result,
some concern is warranted.

 

[Andrew Rossmann]

Microsoft sometimes release temporary "Fix it" solutions
to urgent problems in advance of corresponding patches.
Is there any rule governing whether or at what point such
a "Fix it" should be manually disabled? Before installing
the patch? After? Unnecessary?

Since the FixIt is a program, it does show up in Programs and Features.
For the recent XML one, it shows up as 3 entries for CVE-2012-1889.
Hopefully, a patch could recoginize that it's installed and uninstall it
if necessary.

 

[Dick K]

Microsoft sometimes release temporary "Fix it" solutions
to urgent problems in advance of corresponding patches.
Is there any rule governing whether or at what point such
a "Fix it" should be manually disabled? Before installing
the patch? After? Unnecessary?

Thank you charlie and Andrew for responding. I too hoped
that a patch would recognize and undo a previous Fix-it.
However absent a citation from Microsoft to that effect
better safe than sorry.....

 

[Andrew Rossmann]

Thank you charlie and Andrew for responding. I too hoped
that a patch would recognize and undo a previous Fix-it.
However absent a citation from Microsoft to that effect
better safe than sorry.....

There are always two FixIt's. One to apply, and one to remove. Just
download both and you can run the remover if needed.

 

[s|b]

This gets a bit messy.

If the "fix" replaces or changes code that a later update also replaces,
the "fix" sort of goes away in favor of the update.

On the other hand, the fix may disable or change something elsewhere.
In this case, hopefully, the update senses that the "fix" was previously
implemented, and does what is necessary to bring the configuration to a
"normal" condition.

There are a lot of variables for the second example, and, as a result,
some concern is warranted.

This is the fix:
<http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2719615/en?hdrFo=mthdr07>

And this is what M$ has to say about it:

<quote>

The Fix it solution described in this section is not intended to be a
replacement for any security update. We recommend that you always
install the latest security updates. However, we offer this Fix it
solution as a workaround option for some scenarios.

</quote>

 

[s|b]

Since the FixIt is a program, it does show up in Programs and Features.

It does? I can't see it. Under what name is the Fix-It installed?

 

[s|b]

It does? I can't see it. Under what name is the Fix-It installed?

I think I've found it. Is it "CVE-2012-1889" ? I've got 5 entries with
that name and they can't be found under Revo Uninstaller or Geek
Uninstaller.

(Anyway, I'll use the other Fix-It to uninstall it before I install the
patch.)